This paper studies the causes and consequences of political centralization and fragmentation in China and Europe. We argue that the severe and unidirectional threat of external invasion fostered political centralization in China while Europe faced a wider variety of smaller external threats and...

The author argues that although the collapse of the Doha “Development” Round in early summer of 2006 was triggered by the refusal of the United States to agree to the reduction of the ceiling on the amount of domestic subsidies paid to the US farmers, there were some fundamental reasons...

Poland has historically demonstrated exceptional resiliency in the face of change. This paper examines how Poland coped with huge structural realignments from the rise of Solidarity until the present, seeking to provide an objective analysis of Poland’s evolution of trade structures while it...

Traza las características esenciales del comercio neogranadino entre 1783 y 1796 y sus incipientes relaciones con los extranjeros, hechos que aconsejaban al gobierno español un entendimiento con Inglaterra. Luego describe la desaparición del comercio con España durante la guerra de 1796-1801...

While most economists accept that, in the long run, open economies fare better in aggregate than closed ones, many fear that trade could harm the poor. African countries, for example, have realized significant improvements in trade liberalization in recent decades, yet Africa remains the poorest...

The paper presents an outline of the issues and a preliminary appraisal of the use of trade sanctions by the World Trade Organization (WTO) as a means of promoting compliance by parties. The WTO is unique among intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) in using trade sanctions to enforce...

Like many countries, Spain has gone through a series of financial crises, both before and after its industrialization. There are many underlying causes for these crises, as well as for the current Spanish downturn. It is worth noting that there are similarities between recessions throughout the...

The paper recounts the history of Saudi Arabia's first national oil company, Petromin, which was originally supposed to take the place of foreign-owned Aramco. As a result of Petromin's inefficiency and personal rivalries among the Saudi elite, however, Petromin was progressively relegated to...

Does environmental lobbying affect the probability of environmental treaty ratification? Does the level of government corruption play a role for the success of such lobbying? In this paper, we propose that a more corruptible government may be more responsive to the demands of the environmental...

This thesis aims to contribute to an explanation of how the development of political institutions is influenced by the costs of information and exchange across society in a pre-modern context. The Byzantine Empire in the twelfth century presents an apparent paradox of an expanding economy...